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Pharaoh: A New Era’s demo shows that I had no idea how to play PharaohDenial
Denial
Usually with something like this I’d say “Remember Pharaoh? It’s like that,” except it turns out I misremembered Pharaoh. Since playing the demo of A New Era, and going through some early campaign levels, it has come back to me that I basically only played the first few bits of original Pharaoh over and over again, because Pharaoh is actually quite hard. It’s a collision of your usual city-builder interlocking systems, and vibes-based town planning. You need to build a city and must ensure water and food supply and so on, but finding out how much supply you need, and over what area, is a case of feeling your way.
Pharaoh™: A New Era - Game Evolution TrailerWatch on YouTube
Pharaoh™: A New Era - Game Evolution Trailer
Food production is a particularly juicy one, because if you’re too dependant on farming the banks of the Nile then you’ll have some lean, lean months to get through on account of those same farms relying on the seasonal flooding of the river. There were many, many things that I didn’t get to grip with when playing Pharaoh as a kid, and I’m not sure I will in A New Era, either, but the demo has given me good reason to try. There’s so much to learn.
All of which is, I suppose, a long-winded way of saying “Remember Pharaoh? It’s like that.” The controls are easy, and it’s painless to wipe out buildings you’ve placed somewhere daft. There are also loads of coloured overlays to check the supplies and needs of your city. Looks real nice, too, Although it did take me a while to get over the art. The buildings and land look lovely, but the people and animals are sort of…cartoon-y. I found this a bit weird, especially when an ostrich was facing the camera, for some reason. But after a while it just looked normal, so who am I to gripe?Give it a try yourself(the full game is “coming soon”).
